An Obamacare Surprise in the Mail

Meg and Robert Holub were surprised to receive a letter last week welcoming them to a new health insurance plan and telling them to pay $3,483 by Jan. 8.

“We have received your application for individual and family coverage effective 1/1/2018,” the letter said. The only problem: They never applied for the coverage, did not want it and could not afford it. “I worried, did someone hack my account to sign me up for this?” Mr. Holub said. “And I wondered, what are the implications if I don’t pay for this plan? Will I be hounded by a credit agency?” With just a few days left to sign up for health insurance under the Affordable Care Act, hundreds of thousands of consumers like the Holubs are receiving bills for health plans they did not choose. Their current health plans will not be available in 2018, they did not return to the marketplace to pick a plan, and the federal government has assigned them to other plans offered, in many cases, by different insurance companies.

The Trump administration said the process, known as automatic re-enrollment, would help consumers avoid a gap in coverage. Consumers will not be uninsured on Jan. 1 if their current insurer leaves the marketplace and they do not select a new plan in the 45-day open enrollment period, which ends on Friday. Aetna, Anthem, Cigna, Humana and smaller insurance companies have announced that they will be exiting the Affordable Care Act marketplace in many counties, forcing consumers to look for coverage with other insurers.

The Holubs and their 10-year-old son, who live in Virginia, have coverage this year from Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Virginia, which is pulling out of the marketplace in their area. They were assigned to a plan offered by Optima Health of Virginia Beach.“Thank you for choosing Optima Health!” said the letter informing them of the change.The letter was dated Nov. 10, but the Holubs said they received it last week, just nine days before the end of the open enrollment period. The monthly premium of $3,483 — nearly $41,800 a year — is more than three times what they have been paying Anthem.

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